Brandon Cox, the Stonehill College football player from Easton also shot by police in the New York incident that left another Easton man dead, says the event was "being portrayed in a different light" than what actually occurred, according to Oliver Ames High School Principal Wes Paul, who said the two players were best friends and "inseparable."

Danroy "DJ" Henry, 20, of Easton, a junior at Pace University in New York, was shot and killed by police in an incident outside a bar early Sunday. Cox was in the same car and was grazed in the shoulder by a bullet. Stonehill and Pace had played a football game on Saturday at the New York campus.

“He was a wonderful child. He doesn’t have a record. He’s a good kid. He would never do what they’re saying that he did. He’s a good, good boy and so is my son.”

Cox said her son and Henry had been friends for about 10 years.

A candlelight vigil is planned for Henry at 7 p.m. tonight at a field on Serenade Park, a road inside Tanglewood Estates in Easton.

Cox graduated from Oliver Ames High in 2008, Henry in 2007. Cox's parents traveled to New York to watch their son play in the football game and he was released to them after the game, instead of returning to the Stonehill campus with his team, principal Paul said Monday. Later, he apparently went out with Henry and the shooting occurred early Sunday.

Paul said Cox, who has two half-sisters at Oliver Ames, called him Monday morning to say he was alright and out of the hospital after being treated for the bullet wound.

"He was appreciative of the fact that we are all thinking of him," Paul said of his conversation with Cox. "He was very concerned that things were being portrayed in

a different light" than what actually happened in the shooting.

Page 2 of 4 - Meanwhile, Oliver Ames football coach Jim Artz praised Henry as a "great kid and role model, never in any way a discipline issue. He came from a great home with a great family and great parents.

"DJ was a good student" with a goal of playing football at the collegiate level, Paul said. Henry was a wide receiver while playing at Oliver Ames; he went on to prep school and another college before transferring to Pace in New York. Cox was a running back at OA, graduating a year later and going on to Stonehill.

Henry played his final football game on Saturday as his parents looked on from the stands. Hours later, Danroy Henry Sr. and Angela Henry grieved for their 20-year-old son as they spoke with authorities about how he was shot and killed by police in his car early Sunday outside a bar in Pleasantville, N.Y.

Sunday afternoon, Danroy Henry Sr. fought back tears when asked about his son, who was attending Pace University’s Westchester County campus in New York when the off-campus incident occurred.

“We are absolutely beside ourselves right now. Not only are we experiencing this great loss, but we’re also beside ourselves because we just absolutely can’t understand how this could happen to our son,” Danroy Henry Sr. said outside the family’s Symphony Drive home when they returned from New York Sunday afternoon.

As he spoke, neighbors went to the family’s driveway to console the Henry family, hugging family members. Angela Henry cried as she arrived home.

Henry, the son, played football for all four years, ran track and played basketball, principal Paul said.

“He was just respected and enjoyed. He was a fun kid. It saddens us, really,” Paul said Sunday. Henry’s two younger siblings attend Oliver Ames. His brother, Kyle, is a senior and his sister, Amber, is a sophomore.

Paul said the school has notified its crisis team to provide grief counseling to any students who need it today.

Henry, a junior studying business management, played wide receiver and defensive back for the Pace football team. He attended Milford Academy and Iona College before transferring to Pace. He and his family lived in East Taunton before moving to Easton.

His parents watched him play in Pace’s homecoming game against Stonehill on Saturday.

According to police, officers arrived at Finnegan’s Grill on Broadway in Mount Pleasant about 1:19 a.m. Sunday on a report of a disturbance. Police said they found a large group of people acting unruly outside. Authorities said they noticed an occupied car parked in the fire lane.

Police said Henry was at the wheel and sped off when an officer knocked on the window. As on officer tried to stop the car, Henry accelerated, forcing the officer up on the hood of the car, police said.

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Authorities said Henry struck a second officer who tried to help the one on the hood of the car. Police said two officers then fired at Henry, who crashed into a cruiser. Henry was pronounced dead at the scene.

His passenger – high school friend Brandon Cox of South Easton, a Stonehill student – suffered a non-life-threatening gunshot wound. Two police officers were treated for injuries and two others were treated for trauma.

Police in New York planned a news conference this morning.

Danroy Henry Sr. said he has heard conflicting versions of the events that led to his son’s death, and that he wants to “get to the bottom” of what happened Sunday morning.

“You’re going to get the police reports. So we’re going to need to do some work on our end to make sure that that’s all factual,” he said. “But I’m sure if you reach out to the people investigating it, they will give you their version of the story. There are a lot of witnesses who say that that’s not the version, so we need to get to the bottom of it, one way or another.”

News of Henry’s death stunned residents in Tanglewood Estates, an upscale neighborhood off Foundry Street where Henry lived for several years with his family.

“It’s just a tragedy, no matter what happened, no matter what occurred,” said Anthony Masciarelli, 47, who lives next door to the Henry family. “There’s a child gone. It just hits home.”

Masciarelli said his 12-year-old son, Stefano, broke down crying over the news.

“This is not like Dan,” Masciarelli said of reports about what happened in New York. “This is something that was in the wrong place, at the wrong time.”

A candlelight vigil is planned for Henry at 7 p.m. tonight at a field on Serenade Park, a road inside Tanglewood Estates.

Henry’s father is chief human resources officer for Bright Horizons Family Solutions, a company based in Watertown that is a leader in the field of employer-sponsored child care.

“We’ve been assured by the police there that there will be an objective investigation, that the facts will come out,” his father said. “He was a student, he was an athlete, he just played a great game.”

He said people within the Pace community and in Easton loved his son.

“His coach called him today a man of high moral character. His teammates all loved him,” his father said. “He was very popular on his campus and in this community, as you can see.”

Paul, the Oliver Ames principal, agreed.

“He was a great young man, and this is just a tragic situation. I’m not sure what happened that night,” Paul said. “My thoughts and prayers are with the family.”